S3 introduces high-end DeltaChrome GPU

By
12.18.2003 :: 3:33PM EST

S3 Graphics, a company that was dominant in the graphics field during the 1990s, will soon have its own DX9-compliant GPUs available. A company called Club-3d will soon have a video card based on S3's DeltaChrome GPU. The DeltaChrome will feature 256 MB of RAM, 8 pixel shaders and four vertex shaders, and will support HDTV output. It isn't clear how DeltaChrome will perform against ATI's Radeon 9800 or nVidia's GeForce FX 5950, but DeltaChrome does have some innovative features. S3 apparently has about 400 design engineers as well as the latest simulation equipment. The DeltaChrome isn't the only new GPU coming out: XGI's Volari V8 appears to be equally impressive. XGI and S3 may have been encouraged by the recent decisions of nVidia and ATI to slow the pace of new GPU introductions, but XGI and S3 will still find it difficult to effectively compete against nVidia and ATI. Both nVidia and ATI now have graphics solutions for every market segment, and both companies will soon be coming out with next-generation parts. Other companies have tried to challenge ATI/nVidia and failed. Both the Volari and the DeltaChrome may be unable to gain a foothold in the GPU market, and may be relegated to low-end status.

USER COMMENTS 119 comment(s)

???(4:47pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)I went to Club's website and it says 128MB. Which is correct? – by Necr0

Where is it?(4:54pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)I haven't seen anything but pictures, no benchmarks. At least not anything in English and I couldn't find anyone who had actually put one of these through the paces. At least the XGI Volari has been sampled by tech reporters.

Looks like a low to mid range card with lower clock speeds and fewer transistors than ATI or nVidia so it should run cooler.. and slower.

As the preveiw articles point out, driver support from S3 has been poor in the past so this latest card had better get it right. I have no tollerance for poor drivers any more. – by Zeke

Other Companies(4:58pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)As for your “Other Companies…” link, Matrox wasn't (isn't?) some company that began to compete with nVidia and ATi, it was THE going concern well before nVidea started. Sure they made some mistakes that left them behind, but their Matrox Millenium II coupled with a Voodoo II card was THE way to go at one time… – by =)

An embarrassment of riches?(5:50pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)Seems to me… that Economics “101” says that the introduction of a couple of high-end GPU's (well, not really THAT high, but still darn decent) will likely augur these same GPUs being integrated onto wannabe high-value low cost motherboards. I mean, having near-Radeon-9600 performance on a DX9 chip, with current memory prices, on the motherboard would make for some very sweet “ultra-ultra-low-end-gamer” type PCs.

– by GoatGuy

Sander Olson(6:40pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)“S3 Graphics, a company that was dominant in the graphics field during the 1990s”

Are you on smack??

They were never dominant. They sucked hard!! They were good for about a week when they aquired diamond, then they brought diamond down with them. – by MrX

re MrX(6:45pm EST Thu Dec 18 2003)my old S3 Virge Trio64 was probably the best card I ever had

Are they really having a VGA-to-YPbPr dongle as that really degrades image quality on modern 1080i/1080p screens available?!?

And why is it that GPU/VPU designers can't implement on-chip screen output (and possibly Z) buffer as those are not so large compared to the texture memories usually told as a reason for not going embedded memory?!?

Ps. Having only 16/24-bit DX9 FP color channels really suck as that means they have to make total redesign if they want to do a FP32 version necessary for the DX10+…– by Joe Average

HTPC(1:43am EST Fri Dec 19 2003)The HTPC world has been waiting for this card. Especially the HDTV output resolutions. Let's hope it lives up to its hype. – by Movie Lover

HDTV?(9:48am EST Fri Dec 19 2003)“Are they really having a VGA-to-YPbPr dongle as that really degrades image quality on modern 1080i/1080p screens available?!?”

Are you on crack, there is almost no image degridation. ATI has been doing this for years and their dongle is considered to give the best HDTV output, even when compared to $300 transcoders. Not to mention that very few modern screens can even hit 1080p, most can't push 720p. 540p/1080i is the realistic limit at the moment.

As as HTPCer I have been looking forward to this release. If the low end models ($100) have the dongle odds are I will get one of these. The current ATI dongle that I could get with my older 8500 is just missing too many features. I will be very interested to see if S3 can get it right. – by superNOVA

Mr. X, YOU IDIOT(12:16pm EST Fri Dec 19 2003)Mr. X,

Or as I'd like to call you Mr. Xtremely Stupid. S3 was very dominant from 1995 thru '98. At one point they had 63% of the WW GUI business. They lost out to ATI when they decided not to follow Intel's 2X AGP standard ( a deadly mistake). Now I'm not saying they will or will not become successful again. (Usually these graphic chip mfgs seem to have a 2-3 year run before they blow it i.e Cirrus, then S3, then ATI, then nVidia. ATI's most recent resurgence is the exception to the rule). But what I am saying is that you are obviously ignorant of the previous dominance by S3. My dad told me you learn alot more by listening than you do by talking. I guess a hidden message in his saying was that if you open your mouth people can quickly assess how brilliant or stupid you are. Make sure you know your business facts before you start spreading your ignorance again.